a peak in Darien
by irnan
Summary: Jacen chose his moment carefully, waiting for a day when his classes weren't due to start until after Mom and Dad had left. As soon as he was sure they were safely away, he made his escape to the gardens.


_this is a disclaimer._

_**AN:** AU for the EU, a few years after "swallows and amazons". Shameless fluff. Title from Keats; a certain line pinched from Arthur Ransome.  
_

**a peak in Darien**

"This was possibly not one of your better ideas, Jasa," Grandfather said, kneeling down beside him and putting a hand on his forehead. Jacen flinched a little as it came closer, not really sure he wanted to break his arm and have a ghost-hand go through his brains within the space of the same couple minutes, but Grandfather's hand was as warm and as solid as Dad's.

Grandfather laughed at him. "That woulda been a little creepy even for me."

Jacen tried to laugh, but it came out more of a sniffle; his arm hurt like it was burning, and he had scrapes all over where he'd fallen out of the tree, and he thought if he tried to sit up he might be sick, the way his head was spinning.

"I thought that branch woulda held," he said, and found to his surprise that his voice was shaking and choked. "It shoulda held. It looked like it shoulda held."

"You can't always see when they're rotten," Grandfather said. "Shouldn't you have been in class or something?"

Jacen shifted a bit guiltily, and then gasped when even that tiniest movement jolted his arm. Grandfather put his other hand on his chest, and the warmth of it helped him through the pain.

"The birds," he said. "The flitters. They only come out to fly in the mornings. I wanted to see them."

"Weekends don't exist around here?"

"I guess," Jacen said sulkily.

"Patience is a virtue, kid. Although, going by the rest of your family, you're not in the best of positions to learn that, I guess."

Jacen did manage a laugh this time, concentrating with all his might on Grandfather's voice and his face and the scar above his right eye.

"Where'd you get that?"

"Slipped in the shower," Grandfather said promptly.

Jacen grinned again, but just because he was trying to ignore it didn't make the pain go away, a dull ache that thumped furiously like someone was pounding on his arm and he sobbed a little in spite of his determination not to.

"Mom..."

"Is running over here as fast as she can. It's a big Temple."

"I guess."

Up at the top of the garden, a door banged, and there were footsteps running down the path.

"There you go."

"I really messed up, huh. You should take trees away from me for _ever_. I'm not fit to climb them. Mom should put bans on me climbing trees."

"Eh," Grandfather said. "I don't like bans on things. Better drowned than duffers if not duffers won't drown."

"Jacen!" Mom exclaimed, dropping to the ground beside him; an instant later her hands replaced Grandfather's and she bent over him anxiously. "Jacen, what happened?"

"Sithing tree," Jacen said. "Threw me out. I'm _not_ a duffer," he added to Grandfather, who was standing up now and shrugged at him, smirking a bit: _prove it, kid_.

Jacen would, too. Except not right now, cause it hurt.

"Here," Dad said. "It's his right arm –"

"Broken –"

"Better get him inside. Jasa, can you sit up?"

Jacen wanted to say yes, but he wasn't sure he remembered how. Mom and Dad helped him sit up, steadying him, and then Dad got on his left side and lifted him up very gently. It hurt like anything, but he clenched his teeth and hid his face in Dad's shoulder, warm and smelling like caf and the _Falcon_ and boot polish. Uncle Luke was there too, Jacen sensed, and a bunch of other people hovering at the top of the gardens.

"Serious?"

"No," Mom said. "Broken arm."

But she looked pale as anything, and Uncle Luke put an arm around her as they hurried up the path. "Mara's got Jaina and Anakin."

"Bring 'em along to the medcentre," Dad said. "So they can see he's OK."

Uncle Luke nodded, reaching out to Aunt Mara through the Force, and then he shot Jacen a grin.

"At least you can still walk," he said. "When I was ten I broke my left leg climbing in the Wanesh Canyon with Biggs."

"Oh, _ouch_," Jacen said, and pressed closer to Dad, wondering how long it had taken Uncle Owen to come and fetch Uncle Luke and carry him home like this, what relative he'd had watching over him until help came. After all, Grandfather had still been Vader when Uncle Luke was ten.

That must have been really scary.

"If he ever pulls this kinda stunt again I'll break his legs and leave him in a canyon for the Jawas to find myself," Dad said, angry in that way he and Mom both got whenever they got scared for Jacen or Jaina or Anakin, but Jacen just grinned weakly.

"At least I saw the flitters," he said triumphantly, and Mom actually laughed, even if she was still really pale and looked almost as shaky as Jacen himself. She'd sensed it when Jacen had fallen, he realised, but when he hadn't been in class like she'd thought he was she'd been terrified.

He'd get her flowers to make up for it when his arm was better, he decided. Also, he'd have to remember what Grandfather had said so he could tell Jaya and Anakin later.

They'd show him none of them were duffers.


End file.
